


Thursday’s Child

by happydaygirl



Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Memories, Past Abuse, Slight Au as they are back on red dwarf just after legion, Space junk accident, emotional hurt comfort, past trauma, protective lister, rimmer angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26645794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happydaygirl/pseuds/happydaygirl
Summary: Post Legion- Kryten finds a strange device on a derelict ship that makes memories solid and the gang decides to try it out. Obviously it goes very wrong and Rimmer is hit with the ray. The result is not what any of them expect, and Rimmer faces his past in a way he’d never thought he’d be able to- it’s going to be a bumpy few days...
Comments: 7
Kudos: 15





	Thursday’s Child

It was late afternoon on a boring Tuesday when Kryten found the device. Rimmer had been too busy re-cataloging his shoe collection in person, due to his recent promotion to hard-light status, to join him on their usual weekly jaunt to the nearest asteroid, so Kryten had gone alone.

What he hadn’t expected to find as he navigated his way through the space flotsam and jetsam was the remains of a ship, half buried in a moon not far away. No one was here to give him any orders to the contrary, so he had taken Starbug down to search for survivors.

He had found none, save a few crumbling skeletons in the main deck, but as he made his way back through the burnt out wreckage towards Starbug his eye was drawn by a small silver device on the floor by what he assumed was the science room.

Picking it up, he hardly had time to get a good look at it before the ship rumbled alarmingly and he hot-footed it out of there, barely back into the atmosphere before it broke in half and tumbled to the ground with a large crash.

* * *

‘What have you found this time, Kryters?’ Lister asked, peering at the device on the table in their living quarters. It was a small grey box, with a line buttons running along one side.

‘Another useless piece of space junk, that’s what!’ Rimmer scoffed before Kryten had had time to open his mouth to reply. The hologram crossed his arms as Kryten shook his head, affronted.

‘Sirs, I think this is a memory manipulator, one of the first of its kind if my research is correct!’ He said, voice heavy with intrigue.

‘A what?’ Lister glanced over to Rimmer, who shrugged and stepped closer, still decidedly unimpressed.

‘I’ve done some research and from what I can tell it was invented for long-haul space journeys. The crew could use this device to improve their futures by taking a thoroughly good look at their pasts in solid form.’

‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ Rimmer frowned, looking down at the device. ‘Poking around in your pasts- we don’t need any more of that around here!’

‘No Sir, you see these are just solid memories. Nothing can be changed, not the past, not the future, by doing this. Think of it as if your past has just come to visit you for a few hours. Apparently you could talk to your previous self, work out flaws and see if you can improve yourself once the memory has faded.’ Kryten shrugged as all three of them looked down at the memory manipulator.

‘So, I could go back to last year, see my old self and just have a chat with him?’ Lister asked.

‘Precisely. I also believe it was a way to keep the crew occupied during long missions. Saved them from going stir crazy.’

‘And how long did these memories stick around for?’ Rimmer asked.

‘About four hours, as much as I could tell…’

‘Well why don’t we give it a go?’ Lister shrugged, smiling. ‘Something small at first.’

‘Lister nothing good can come of this!’ Rimmer reminded him, voice sharp. ‘Don’t mess with the past.’

‘But Kryten just said-‘

‘This is us we are talking about, isn’t it?’ Rimmer sighed then grimaced. ‘Something is bound to go mightily wrong. I can feel it in my waters.’

‘Rimmer you don’t have any waters!’ Lister shot back, before turning to Kryten. ‘How about we bring back me from last week? Small and innocuous.’

‘Do you know what innocuous even means, you simple minded baboon?’ Rimmer sneered, ignoring the middle finger Lister gave him in return.

He sighed as Kryten began fiddling with the buttons running along the machine.

‘This is going to go wrong…’ he sing-songed. Looking up, he sighed as Kryten continued to press buttons.

‘There. One week ago. Memory time, five hours. Ready, Mr Lister, Sir?’

‘Do it.’ Lister said, taking off his hat and standing still.

‘Alright…’ Kryten pressed one final button- a sudden force was unleashed from the machine as a green ray suddenly erupted from it. Unprepared for this sudden release of movement Kryten stepped back with a small cry of alarm, his arms momentarily coming up and moving the trajectory of the beam.

Rimmer yelped as he felt the beam centre in on his head. ‘Kryten!’ He yelled in anger as he was enveloped in a white mist.

‘Rimmer!’ He heard Lister shout from somewhere ahead of him. Seconds later he felt a peculiar fizzing sensation in his head, as if someone was rummaging around in his brain like it was a filing cabinet.

‘You can turn it off now, thanks!’ He shouted, before he suddenly felt a wave of nausea rise as it felt like a folder was being plucked from his memory cabinet and the door was slammed shut.

‘Rimmer?’ Lister looked on, wide eyed, as the mist suddenly got denser, and another green ray moved from Rimmer to a spot just to his left.

The mist suddenly faded away, leaving Rimmer to clutch onto the back of a chair, breathing heavily. ‘That was horrible!’ He shouted, turning angry eyes to Kryten. ‘You didn’t mention that it would hurt!’

‘Uh, Rimmer…’ Lister asked, pointing down to the memory who had just joined them from the mist. ‘Who’s that?’

It was a bit of a pointless question, really. Even without ever meeting the figure in his life, he knew who it was. It was a child, no more than five or six, although he seemed much too tall for his age. Brown curly hair, and equally brown wide eyes. Thin lips, regal nose, anxious stance. The child looked up at Rimmer with a confused looked on his face. Rimmer went pale, his mouth falling open.

‘Oh smeg,’ he breathed, looking across to Lister with wide eyes. ‘It’s me.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Please comment below, they really help me improve and I’d love to know your thoughts!


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